Mohammed Abdulla Al-Zaffin

Mohammed Abdulla Al-Zaffin serves as the director of the Dubai Municipality GIS Center, a position he has held since 2002. The center is charged with sole authority over all geo-referenced data in and for the Emirate of Dubai. From 1996 to 2001, he served as the head of the survey section for Dubai Municipality, where previously he had been an engineer and then assistant head of section.

Al-Zaffin obtained his Bachelor of Civil Engineering degree at Saint Martin’s College, Lacy, Washington, USA, and completed his master’s degree in survey engineering and GIS (geographic information systems) at the University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. He is enrolled in the doctoral program in photogrammetry and GIS at the University of Hannover, Germany.

He has been instrumental in implementing various programs of GIS-based planning and e-governance by Dubai Municipality. The Dubai Government named the GIS Center’s DUGIS one of the Best Distinguished Technical Projects of 2004.